WHAT WAS THE SOUTH AND WHO WERE HER PEOPLE?

What was the South and who were her people? There are those who think she nurtured a upas whose very shadow blighted wherever it fell, and made her civilization inferior. What was that civilization? Let its products, as seen in the people it produced and the history and character of that people, answer. Where do Where do you look for the civilization of a people? In their history, in their achievements, in their institutions, in their character, in their men and women, in their love of liberty and country, in their fear of God, in their contributions to society and the race.

Measured by this high standard, where can you find a grander or a nobler civilization than hers? Where has there been greater love of learning than that which established her colleges and universities? Where better preparatory schools, sustained by private patronage and not the exactions of the tax-gatherer, schools now unhappily dwarfed and well-nigh blighted by our modern system? Whose people had higher sense of personal honor? Whose business and commerce were controlled by higher integrity? Whose public men had cleaner hands and purer records? Whose soldiers were braver or knightlier? Whose orators more eloquent and persuasive? Whose statesmen more wise and conservative? Whose young men more chivalrous? Whose young women more chaste? Whose fathers and mothers worthier examples? Whose homes more abounded in hospitality? Where was there more respect for woman, for the church, for the

Sabbath, for God and for law? Where was there more love of home, of country and of liberty?

Deriving their theories of government from the Constitution, her public officers never abandoned those principles upon which alone the government could stand; esteeming their public virtue as highly as their private honor, they watched and exposed every form of extravagance and every approach of corruption. Her religious teachers, deriving their theology from the Bible, guarded the church from being spoiled "through philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions of men." Her women adorned the highest social circles of Europe and America with their modesty, beauty and culture. Her men, in every society, won a higher title than "the grand old name of gentleman": that of Southern gentleman.

Thus in herself, what contributions did she make to the material growth of the country? Look at the map of that country and see the five States formed out of the territory north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi, generously and patriotically surrendered by Virginia. Look at that vast extent of country, acquired under the administration of one of her presidents, which to-day constitutes the States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota west of the Mississippi, Colorado north of the Arkansas, besides the Indian Territory, and the Territories of Dakota, Wyoming and Montana!

Is it asked what has she added to the glories of the republic? Who wrote the Declaration of Independence? Jefferson. Who led the armies of the republic in maintaining and establishing that independence? Who gave mankind new ideas of greatness? Who has furnished the

sublimest illustration of self-government? Who has taught us that human virtue can set proper limits to human ambition? Washington. What State made the first call for the convention that framed the Constitution? Virginia. Who was the father of the Constitution? Madison. Who made our system of jurisprudence unsurpassed by the civil law of Rome or the common law of England? Marshall. Who was Marshall's worthy successor? Taney. Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Marshall, Taney-these were her sons.

Is it asked where her history was written? It was written upon the brightest page of American annals. It was written upon the records of the convention that framed the Constitution. It was written in the debates of congresses that met, not to wrangle over questions of mere party supremacy, but like statesmen and philosophers, to discuss and solve great problems of human government. It was written in the decisions of the country's most illustrious judges, in the treaties of her most skillful diplomats, in the blood of the revolution and the battles of every subsequent war led by her generals, from Chippewa to the proud halls of the Monte

zumas.

"Breathes there a man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said,

This is my own, my native land!"

Forced to defend our homes and liberties after every honorable effort for peaceful separation, we went to war Our leaders were worthy of their high commission. Our people sealed their sincerity with the richest treasure ever offered and the noblest holocaust ever consumed upon

the altar of country. Our flag went down at Appomattox. Weakened by stabs from behind, inflicted by hands which should have upheld her; her front covered with the wounds of the mightiest war of modem times, dripping with as pure blood as ever hallowed freedom's cause, our Confederacy fell and Liberty stood weeping at the grave of her youngest and fairest daughter.J. C. C. Black.

[Extract from an address delivered at the unveiling of the Hill monument in Atlanta in 1886.]

GEORGIA'S EDUCATIONAL NEEDS BEFORE THE WAR.

The lessons which the Creator teaches us are as varied as the works of His creation. There are not only "books in running brooks," but wisdom in everything. The position of the human eye in the body would seem to teach that our vision should be onward and upward but never backward. The past should be consulted only for warning and for guidance. The man who sits satisfied with the victories already achieved and the laurels already won will soon find the memory of those victories becoming dim and the brightness of those laurels faded. The universe of God is all motion and action and the man or nation who stands still for a moment loses position in the great caravan of creation. Indolence or inactivity on the part of a State brings as certain a harvest of retrogradation and effeteness as the same vices will yield for the individual. Action is the command of God; and the vio

lation of His law by man or nation is avenged by the fruits of disobedience.

Georgia has been termed the Empire State of the South. The honor has not been won without labor nor bestowed without desert. The enterprise of her citizens, the magnificence of her internal improvements, the genius of her sons and the greatness of her statesmen, demanded the prize, for the victory was hers. But, unfortunately for Georgia, too many of her sons are so engrossed in the contemplation of her past successes and so satisfied with her progress already made, that they seem not to appreciate the necessity for renewed effort and still greater strides in the race for greatness and for power. Our sister States are not content to leave to Georgia an uncontested palm. Taught by her example, with energy they have entered the lists. Ohio admits that the lands around us are more congenial to the vine than her own virgin soil. North Carolina must confess that the pine forests of our Southern counties yield more richly of the resin and turpentine than her own long-cherished and almost exhausted barrens. Maine looks with envy and with wonder at the undeveloped lumber trade upon our coasts and rivers and knows well what Georgia seems so slow to learn; that her live oak and yellow pine are indispensable to the shipbuilders of the world. Pulverized tripoli is imported and sold in our stores, while masses of the same lie on the sides of our railroads, heedlessly thrown up from the excavations. Huge hills of black lead cumber the ground in our mountain region, while we daily make memoranda with pencils manufactured in some distant State. The copper dug from our mountain-sides is sent North to be smelted. The duty paid on iron for our rail